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Reviews
Justice Society: World War II (2021)
Nostalgic Superhero film
So off the top I think the art style will throw off some, it's clearly made with the intention of a more retro look, reminiscent of 60's cartoons with general quality of life changes to make it better suited to modern audiences, which I personally found to be quite beautiful. I wouldn't want this art style for all future DC animated films, but it seemed well suited to the nature and tone of this film.
Storyline wise there is nothing particularly interesting about it, it's WWII based so it's mostly about punching Nazi's & stopping evil plans and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that, it's simply what the Superhero WWII genre is.
What's interesting or atleast refreshing about the film is it allows its heroes to be vulnerable, flawed, and make mistakes. Yet despite any shortcomings or fears they may have they persist on, it's the inherent part of what makes a hero courageous, far too many modern heroes, particularly with respect to female heroes aren't allowed to show weakness in any respect. A hero that shows some measure of vulnerability or is in someway flawed is always more compelling then the always perfect & virtuous hero who can do no wrong.
Extraction (2020)
Superb Action Scenes
This movie wasn't heavy on storyline, emotion, or character development, it's a pure hardcore action flick with tiny bits of the aforementioned added to round it out ever so slightly. For people who like movies like John Wick or The Raid: Redemption, this movie will probably be right down your alley.
I'm not sure what is with all these negative reviews with respect to accent when 95% of the people who watch it won't give a damn. With the way some of these reviews read it makes me think every employee at the Bhangladesh tourism board was told to right an angry review.
Superman: Red Son (2020)
Superman Elseworlds
The story itself is a novel concept about how a character that we are all extremely familiar with changes based on a Soviet Communist upbringing and how each trial he experiences molds him. I felt both communism and capitalism were treated pretty fairly in their depictions, it's obviously a bit tilted towards capitalism based on where the source material came from and the audience it was written for, though I don't disagree that capitalism tends to produce better outcomes for its people then does communism.
I am familiar with the source material, but it's been a long time since I read it so I didn't really notice many of the little things left out or changed, aside from the women being more preachy and apparently infallible. For the changes I did notice it seemed like most were tasteful in the first 2/3rd's of the movie but I wish they stuck closer the source material on the back 1/3rd.
Overall I think it's one of DC Animations stronger movies of recent memory, there is room for criticism with creative liberties they took and this movie probably could of used a little more runtime to not rush through certain parts, but I think it hit most of the major beats which made the original comic both interesting and good.
Knives Out (2019)
A Truly Great Whoddunit
Very few whoddunits have me grinning ear to ear like this one did at multiple points. The perfect amounts of clever and absurd, with a charm all its own.
I'm sure many wrote off this director after a monumental piece of crap like The Last Jedi, but this movie should do a lot to restore people's faith in this director who also made phenomenal movies like Looper and Brick.
Klaus (2019)
Merry Christmas
I rated the movie a 9/10, if I was rating purely based on the quality of the movie it might be slightly closer to 8/10, but I gave it that little extra cause in the Christmas movie genre which has more than it's fair share of stinkers, this movie stands very close to the top.
For me this is one of the 3 best Christmas movies I've ever seen, if you want a Christmas movie you can't go wrong here.
FYI- If you are a parent watching this with your kids, I'll just give a small caution it's mildly different take on Santa Claus than what Christmas canon dictates, it might require the smallest of little white lies to bring it all back together again for them.
Seis Manos (2019)
Kung Fu Revenge Rollercoaster Set in Mexico
It's a bit of an odd show, basically mashing 3 genres together, but it definitely works. Despite being a bit busy plot wise and only having 8 episodes to do it, it was a pretty solid package giving reasonably solid backstory, while still pushing the main narrative forward at a healthy pace. It reminded me a bit of Kill Bill and Desperado, I don't think it's quite as solid as either, but a show I'd recommend to anyone who likes Kung Fu flicks and cartoons.
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019)
Disappointing
The live action Wonder Woman and the 2009 animated film were both wonderful, this was a major let down by comparison.
First off re-telling her origin and how she decided to come to the world of man, felt very unnecessary given how recently that story was last told.
What sprung her into action was Darkseid's parademons, but that part of the story was completely glossed over and seemed like she was schooled for a substantial length of time before ever taking on the mantle of hero. Highly out of character for Diana, she is a warrior and woman of action it's hard to think of her willingly going to the sideline like that for so long.
While having self doubts isn't out of character for Wonder Woman, having such prominent levels of self doubt clearly visible at the surface level for like 2 decades, just seems absurd for the character. Wonder Woman living in the same house as a young impressionable girl and not being able to make a strong bond seems really strange as well, just felt like contrived drama for the purpose of story-telling.
The animation quality also took a noticeable nose dive from other DC animated films with multiple portions of animation looking clunky and more in line with weekend cartoon animation than an animated movie, at other times it was better, but this served to make the weaker portions more noticeable.
A lot of villains in the movie at six, but they were basically recycling them Silver Swan at her initial level was a lot like Cheetah, Giganta and Medusa at her second level had obvious parallels, and Dr. Poison and Dr. Cyber were brainy bossy types who didn't get their hands dirty. A stronger story with less villains generally makes a more compelling narrative.
Then lastly woke culture did find a way to sneak into the movie, they made Steve Trevor a lot weaker and more incompetent than needed to try and make Wonder Woman shine brighter by comparison. If you need to degrade the men around a woman to make them heroic it's probably a clear sign of bad directing and bad story telling. What initially attracted Wonder Woman to Steve Trevor was he was a capable warrior and very brave, there will be times he needs help like a damsel in distress, but it shouldn't just be perpetually happening. Then for woke culture purposes they threw in a token minority, who was also overweight, and a lesbian just to check all the token woke culture boxes.